Miss M at Six Months and Change

I am a little late with the monthly update, but things have been quite hectic around here, and every spare minute has been spent enjoying time with Miss M, rather than documenting that time. . .

Dear Miss M,

We continue to be thoroughly enchanted by you. You are the happiest of babies, always smiling and giggling. When you wake up in the morning, you lay quietly, waiting for us to also awaken. When we do, you give us a big smile as soon as you see that we are looking at you. Sometimes, if you are in our bed, which you ARE most mornings these days, you will grab on to my pajama top and nestle in close so that you can nurse. You are getting SO strong, and can pull yourself over to me. It is quite cute.

You have not slept well since we moved here. About a month ago, we were at wit's end with your sleeplessness, and we let you sleep in our bed with us--something we said we would NEVER do! Sure enough, it helped you sleep, which in turn meant that we slept. You've been there ever since. Oh sure, we try to put you to bed in your crib. But sometime during the middle of the night, you are sure to awake crying. You roll all over the place, and wake yourself up rolling onto your tummy. It scares you to wake up alone, and you cry inconsolably until you realize we are there with you. As soon as we pick you up, you are happy, and you go right back to sleep once placed in our bed. You love to snuggle with us, and can often be found with one hand on daddy and one on mommy.

You are incredibly active these days. You roll ALL OVER the place. You sometimes try to crawl, but can't quite do it, and this frustrates you and makes you cry. Still, you are able to move everywhere by rolling like a whirling dervish. It was quiet, a little too quiet, a few weeks ago, and when I peered out from the kitchen, you had managed to roll yourself over to the big glass windows and were gnawing on the bottoms of the vertical blinds. Yuck!

You love to be out and about in your stroller. You are curious about the world around you, as you have been ever since you were born. I have never seen a baby who is so interested in everything, but you are. You love to look around. You are fascinated by trees, and just like daddy, you love to people watch. We are having a terrible time getting you to eat, because you just don't want to stop for a minute. It takes an hour to get you to drink 4-5 ounces from your bottle. I have no idea how much you drink when you nurse, because while you are more attentive, you are also more comfortable nursing, and you often fall asleep.

This month, just before the 4th of July, we started you on "real" food while we were visiting my mom, your grandma. Rice cereal. . .you didn't love it. We get a bit into you at every feeding, but you just aren't crazy about it. After that, we moved on to green beans (you hated them and cried with every spoonful. . .you made the best "this is terrible" faces). I thought that maybe there was something wrong with the green beans, but I tasted them, and they tasted just like green beans. We gave up on those after a week. . .maybe in a few weeks we'll bring them back. Then, it was peaches, but you didn't really care for those, either. We tried bananas next. Nope, not those, either. Finally, we hit the jackpot with applesauce. Slowly, we are getting more into you.

At your six month doctor's visit, you were in just the 5 percentile for your weight, although you were in the 55 percentile for height, and the 75 percentile for head circumference. We joke that you are going to be skinny and smart. Still, it worries us that you are so thin, and the doctor wants to see us again in six weeks. We are sneaking cereal into your bottles to try to add some extra calories. We can't tell if it's working.

We love to play with you. You love books, your rubber giraffe, your binky, and the little soft stuffed doll that grandma gave you when she came to visit you this month. It is the perfect size for you, and you love to chew on it. You love to chew on everything, actually--the tags on pillows, your blanket, daddy's shirt, your toys, your feet. In fact, while trying to take your passport photo yesterday, they had to take it twice, because you stuck your foot in your mouth just as they snapped the picture. And everything makes you laugh. We just love to listen to you laugh. It is the happiest sound on the planet.

Each day, we look forward to the new little things that you do. You now pass things from one hand to the other. You can sit up, supporting yourself on your arms. In the last few days, you have started to make a clicking sound with your mouth. You have also started doing something that we find absolutely hilarious--DANCING!!! A few nights ago we were at dinner with friends, and you heard some music and started rocking back and forth, and then laughing your head off. It was so funny. We've been able to replicate it since then--yes, you dance when we play music. It is just the greatest thing ever. We have no idea where you learned this from.

In another month, we will move to a foreign country. It will be sad that you won't get to see our friends and family as often as you might have otherwise, but there are so many amazing experiences that you will have instead. We can't wait to explore this big world with you.

Love,
Mom

Things I Have Learned In The Last Month

1. When given no other coice, it is possible to pump in five minutes. It is also possible to pump with this sort of abbreviated pumping schedule for weeks on end, and keep supply in reasonably good shape.

2. Fenugreek really works to improve supply, and quickly!

3. Alas, a baby who sleeps well for months on end won't sleep well forever...particularly once she discovers it's much nicer to snuggle in mommy's bed than sleep alone in her crib.

4. South of New England, the cockroaches grow to be the size of small dogs.

5. It's fun to be a student again. Usually. Sometimes it also feels like living under a semi-hostile dictatorship. No cups without lids, 10 minute bathroom breaks, no whispering...ugh.

6. If you don't unpack, you don't have to repack two months later when you learn you are getting sent abroad much sooner than you have anticipated.

7. Grandmothers don't like it much when you tell them you are taking their grandchild to a large city in another country, and it doesn't help to remind them that at least it's not [insert country you find frightening here].

Here!

I am still alive. I have been so insanely busy, and running on so little sleep, that blogging has been impossible. The schedule with the new job has been easy in terms of work hours, but the social schedule here has been intense. Miss M is still not sleeping through the night, either, so I am a wreck. I am having a blast, but wiped out. The job is great, Miss M is divine, and T is great. Things are good. I should know in a few days how much more training I will need, and where the company will be sending me next. It's all very exciting...and oh so exhausting!

Arrival

We are in our new city, and more or less moved in to our new place. It's a decent place-big and airy, with nice furnishings. Since we are here only temporarily for training, we moved into a furnished place, and we are so glad we did. It was no more difficult than check into a hotel, and it came pretty well stocked (there is even a pastry brush in the kitchen!).

We made one tactical mistake. We waited to transition Miss M from bassinet to crib until we were here. She has also started rolling over onto her tummy every chance she gets, and seems to have forgotten how to roll back. She tries to crawl (but can't), and then screams her head off. She woke herself up approximately 407 times the first couple of nights, rolling all over the place. I wondered if we would ever sleep through the night again. Mercifully, last night she rolled all over the place, but did not wake up, and we all got a good night's sleep.

I have started my new job. So far, so good. I got home at 5:15 last night! I have commuted and worked such long hours for so many years that it was kind of a shock. We went out to dinner, and as we walked back, I commented on how nice it is to be able to do things with T. during the week. I am so excited to be able to spend more time at home, which the hours of job will hopefully allow me to do.

So all in all, things are good!

Hodgepodge

Well, one end of the move (out of our house) is officially over. We had a going away party, which was fun. I said goodbye to family and friends, which was hard. We cleaned out the house, put stuff in storage, threw stuff away, donated, and packed for what seems like forever. I am so glad to be done with it, although it was so all-consuming that I feel like I didn't get a chance to say a proper goodbye to my old life, if that makes any sense. When you are moving, it is easy to occupy yourself with the small stuff.

We drove a good bit of the way a few nights ago. Miss M was cheerful for the first seven hours in her carseat, but the last two hours were a screamfest. I felt horrible, so horrible that I stopped at a rest area not far from my mother's house (our destination at the time) just so I could take her out of the car seat and hug her. That's all she wanted, and she cried again when I had to strap her back in. We've spent the last few days at my mom's, where Miss M was spoiled by grandma. Tomorrow, we drive a few more hours, then move into our new place. I can't wait to see it (we rented sight unseen, because that was all I could deal with at the time).

Endings

Tonight is my last night in my own bed in my own house. The movers are coming tomorrow (a day early-don't even get me started!). It's Miss M's last night in her bassinet, as we will be transitioning her to her crib after we move. It's our last night in this room where we created her...our last night in this room where my water broke, where she and I spent much of those early months, coccooned in from the winter weather and the world. Our last night really living in this house, where this amazing life with her Miss M. began.

The pace has been frenetic, so there's been no time to reflect, which might be a good thing. My grandmother came by today, to see M. and to take pictures, and to give her some things, and it struck me that this isn't just saying goodbye to our house and our favorite places. It's not just "see you in a while, to our friends and family. This might actually be the last time I see my grandmothers. It may be our last time with certain family friends and godparents, ever. Some of them are getting older, and/or are in failing health. It all makes me terribly sad.

5 Months

Miss M. Is five months today. She is currently laying under her baby gym, vigorously moving her legs, talking, and trying to yank one of the toys low enough to stuff it in her mouth--all while pooping her pants, it seems from the noises she is making. Ahhh, the life of a baby.

Five months ago, it was hard for me to ever imagine a time when parenting wouldn't be scary, a time when she would get bigger, a time when she would interact with the world around her. When I first would lay her under the play gym, she would just lay there and stare. I couldn't imagine that she would play with the toys on the baby gym. But, that day is here. It's amazing to think of how far along her development has come. In no particular order:

-Miss M can roll over both ways. She started being able to roll from front to back a few weeks ago. It's still a bit hard for her, as she has trouble pulling the arm underneath her out from beneath her after she rolls.

She chatters away a lot. In the morning, she gets louder and louder until we get up with her.

She is a happy, smiley, giggly baby. We just adore her. Yesterday we took her to get her passport, and she gave the photographer a big smile. She is going to have the cutest passport photo.

She has started to teeth in ernest over the last few weeks. Everything goes in her mouth, and she is increasingly fussy. She'll stop screaming if you rub her gums, though. But, I hate putting my fingers in her mouth.

She has started trying to stick her fingers in her mouth while she eats. Nope, that doesn't work.

She has a new love for her swing, which she was never really into before.

We've started sitting her in the Bumbo chair, which she likes-especially outside on the grass. She is fascinated by grass, and leans over the chair to run her fingers through it.

She was sleeping through the night very reliably until teething started. Now we are up once a night for a long feeding.

She JUST went into the 3-6 month clothes. She is a peanut. She has a gorgeous wardrobe, though, thanks to generous friends and family and a treaure trove of both new clothes and hand-me-downs. Dressing her is SO much fun!

She finally discovered her toes, and will chew on them if they are bare.

She likes to be carried around the yard so she can look at the plants.

Daddy likes to nuzzle her with his beard, and it makes her smile. She laughs out loud when he holds her and yells "choo choo," and then jiggles her while making a chugging train noise. It's hilarious to watch. She squeals in delight, whoch makes my heart happy.

She started petting the cat (before he left to go live with grandma). It was amazing that she knew to pet him, and even more amazing that he didn't even seem to mind when she yanked on his fur a few times.

We have to move her out of the bassinet when we move next week. She is officially too big for it. She creeps up during the night, and ends up with her head against the top.

In short, she continues to totally rock.